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Re: [3.5e] Newbie looking to play with magic

Originally Posted by Juggernaut1981

Using Core books only:

Sorcerer (Cannon) = Cannon + Heartbeat. You walk around and blast things from a long way away... (you could be the dude who could create an entire illusionary world around other beings 24/7 if you want...)

Cannon? Heartbeat? Sounds interesting, but I don't know what you mean.

Originally Posted by Juggernaut1981

Sorcerer (Squirrel-Puncher) = Everybody gets neutered. Hold Person, Enfeeblement, Grease... if it is an enchantment/necromancy and likely to make someone else's life harder... that's your kind of spell.

That sounds more like what I'll be aiming for. I figure the two Fighters + Rogue can handle damage.

Originally Posted by Juggernaut1981

Wizard (ALL KINDS) = "I believe I have Rary's Rather Large Rat Repellant Emanating Fog of Lavender in my scrollcase here somewhere... oh there it is right next to Mordenkainen's Magnificent Cutlery Set" Seriously, if its on a scroll buy it and write in your book, then copy it out of the book onto a Scroll and have a scroll case that was single-handedly responsible for the Deforestation of the Great Desert... Most people seem to forget about Downtime and Scribe Scroll... Wizards should NEVER run out of spells, if you run out then the next time you go to town... BUY LOTS MORE PAPER YOU TWIT!!!!

That's a great idea. Thanks, I never would have thought of that.

Originally Posted by Juggernaut1981

Cleric = I am the impenetrable walking fortresss of smackdown. Spells + Heavy Armour... even just using the Core Books... seriously well-done Clerics are HARDCORE. This is before you include the overpowered cheese that allow you to burn turning attempts to power metamagic feats... (Which peanut brained crack smoking chimpanzee thought that was a balanced mechanic????)

Personal buffs are less interesting to me. *shrug* But how does one accomplish that cheese, anyway?

Originally Posted by Juggernaut1981

My personal choice: Wizard. But then I have played Wizards and Rogues for almost every single one of my characters... the party got the poos with my Saintly Paladin and another time my Cleric basically died when the rest of the party was nerfed at the same time (but there was comedy GOLD leading up to that point, including the Cleric impersonating the god of Kuotoans)

That sounds amusing.

Originally Posted by Quietus

For a first character, if someone wants to go arcane spellcaster... or any spellcaster, to be honest... I ALWAYS recommend Sorcerer. I also suggest they ask the DM if he'll be a little lenient in allowing switching of spells known, at least at first, as the new player grows into his character.

Yeah, I definitely will be asking Ernir for a little leniency there, if I go that route. That, or get a very good idea of what I'm looking for here.

Originally Posted by Quietus

I find the easiest way to go is with a human sorcerer, picking up Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot. There's a lot of nice rays, and these two feats combine to A) Add accuracy and B) Reduce problems involving party members in combat with your target. For nice usable rays, look at Ray of Enfeeblement and Scorching Ray, just from first and second level spells respectively. Point Blank Shot will also add a comparably significant amount of damage to Ray of Frost/Acid Splash, if you're starting at 1st level, 1d3+1 is proportionately nicer than just 1d3.

Rays sound cool, but TLN suggested that damage is a waste of time - for Wizards. Is it different for Sorcerers, or do you simply disagree?

Originally Posted by Quietus

Try and keep a decent fort, reflex, and will save around - Grease is a nice reflex save, as is Web, though Web is higher level. Glitterdust, as mentioned, is nice for Will. And Scorching Ray will make for nice damage, if you need to do it, once you hit level 4. At either third or sixth level, I'd pick up Heighten Spell, so you can keep your save-or-sucks known to a minimum, casting Glitterdust as a 4th level spell instead of having to know it AND a 4th level Will is very helpful.

Heightened Spell seems amazing for the Sorcerer. Will keep that in mind.

Metamagic on a Sorcerer seems a little weaker, though, because of the extra time thing.

Originally Posted by ericgrau

Technically sorcerers can change a couple spells, but not many. I was well aware of that. You still have to pick carefully. Initially both a sorcerer and wizard are equally difficult, but if you screw up a wizard you can change your mind later. I'm just saying if he goes sorcerer to be careful and spend a good deal of time on spell selection. And planning for that matter; because ideally you want the good spells in your high level slots and out-of-combat buffs in lower level ones... which used to be your high level slots. That consumes a lot of your spell swapping right there. The wizard is more work later, but as for difficulty in making a character the sorc can give trouble to new players that don't spend enough time beforehand.

DragoonWraith: If you want more help with the your spell list, feel free to ask. Maybe pick spells according to your own personal preference and post it so we can weed out problems. A sorcerer whom you knew for sure had a good spell array from the get-go would give the best of both worlds in terms of ease of play. Or just do it by yourself and be real careful, read the spell descriptions carefully, think of how they'd be used, etc.